This is my first post here, so I appreciate your patience/tolerance/whatever else you feel is required.
I have been using Linux in various forms since about 2008, and have settled on Debian as my OS of choice. I love it for its flexibility and particularly the fact it is so eas to customise. Unfortunately, I have no programming experience (C etc.) but so far, I have not needed it.
So, I have created a custom "lite" build of Debian Bullseye (with KDE desktop), with these goals in mind:
- Only install what is necessary
- Keep the installation as small as possible
- Easy to configure, customise and adjust as required
In a nutshell, my process for creating the distro is as follows:
- I use the mini.iso to start installing a very basic system. I'm using Bullseye (stable), but the process works just as well with Testing or Unstable.On During install, I do not select any desktop environment during the tasksel section, thus creating a minimal system with terminal prompt only.
- Once the installation is complete, I boot into the new system, giving me a terminal prompt.
- I then install only the bare-bones requirements for my system, using apt install. The trick is to use --no-install-recommends for all package installation as much as possible. This example command installs a bare-bones KDE environment; you may like to adapt it if you prefer something else like GNOME or whatever. Of course, you may need to also install any drivers for graphics cards or other hardware you may have.
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sudo apt install --no-install-recommends kde-plasma-desktop sddm plasma-nm kde-config-sddm kde-config-gtk-style* kde-config-screenlocker qml-module-org-kde-newstuff kwin-x11 systemsettings plasma-discover featherpad powerdevil kscreen kmix sudo apt remove konqueror kwrite
- Then reboot, and it should boot into a minimal (but still quite adequate and comfortable) KDE desktop. At this point, I usually install Systemback and create a live ISO and snapshot of the system, which provides a very quick and easy way to start over if something goes wrong while getting the machine all set up. By the way, I use Featherpad instead of Kwrite as my text editor, as it plays nice with editing as root, and removing Konqueror as I personally do not use it (no offence to the devs who create/maintain these programs!).
The result is a lean and fast KDE desktop, Discover is on hand to keep the system up to date, and I keep the snapshots and ISO backups up to date (once a week or so) so no great loss if things do go wrong. I realise Systemback may not be the most common tool used in the Debian world for backup, but I do find it very easy to use, flexible, and well-suited to this project.
Anyway, I hope this may be helpful for anyone who wants to run a slimmed-down and efficient system. Any comments, suggestions or questions are welcome. I can upload a copy of the bare-bones system as a Systemback ISO if anyone would like to look at it.
Cheers!